State of The Mega Man Network – July 2023

Three years…

It’s been three years since I put down the money for the new server for The Mega Man Network. I had a lot of plans for the website at the time, and three years later, only a handful of them have played out as I had hoped. Some things fell through. Others ran into complications and took longer than I had hoped. Still others, I’m hoping to achieve in time. And along the way, new ones have come to mind.

One thing I did not plan for was my passion to be reignited in the way it has been. If you haven’t been reading “Legends of the Halcyon Era”, then you may have missed a note I’ve made a time or two among its pages. While my love for Mega Man has never died, I thought I had lost my passion for the franchise — that spark, that flame that keeps me excited to look at it each new day. Maybe not to the extent that Richie does, but certainly a whole lot closer to that than where I was for a while there.

A large part of that has been due to what I suppose one could call my own personal investment in the world of Mega Man, those aforementioned stories. To that end, I want to give you a little bit of a teaser of what to expect from those, as well as the rest of the website, and more as we move forward.

COVID struck a devastating blow to my writing and scheduling of these stories at the start of the year. That’s why I’ve been posting them weekly: there is an end game in mind here, a destination I intend to reach at the end of the year… or a week or two shy, if you know what I’m getting at.

Currently, I have stories written and waiting to be proofread by my wife all the way up to the end of September. Before the end of October, things will move to a bi-weekly schedule, and after December 17th, I plan to pump the brakes on it a little, and get things out at a little more of a relaxed pace.

Why December 17th? You know why. I’ve got something BIG planned for that day’s release. Episode 50 is going to go beyond the story I’ve been telling, and I hope it will go beyond your expectations, too. And believe me when I tell you that things won’t be the same afterwards.

Prior to that, things are leading up to a big Summer Special two-parter that I hope will catch a few eyes when Part 1 of “A Turn For The Worst” lands the first (Edit: Second. Accidentally left an episode out on my schedule) weekend of August. Following that, we’re turning back time to find out more about how Nytetrayn and Fenix got to where they are today. And after that? Oh, I’d love to tell you, but you’ll have to wait and see. I’ll say this much: “A Turn For The Worst” is definitely going to trigger a different dynamic going forward.

Here’s an early sneak peek at the “cover” art being made for it:

Early cover draft for “Legends of the Halcyon Era #35 – A Turn For The Worst Part 1: Daddy’s Home”.

While that’s been going on, I’ve been trying to keep up with a new article of some sort about Mega Man or Mega Man-esque games every week as well, as I absolutely Hate (that wasn’t supposed to be capitalized, but I’m going to attribute that to my subconscious) having two “Legends” episodes back-to-back on the front page. That should hopefully get easier with the new year. One thing I plan to incorporate is more reviews, along with the usual analysis, musings, and anecdotes.

I’m also hoping to expand our reach on our YouTube channel. I have a few ideas of things to do with the channel come the New Year, aside from the occasional live streams of “Nadia & David’s Mega Man Mayhem” that my wife and I do here and there.

And of course, I’m hoping at some point to not only bring back The Fully Charged Podcast, but expand its scope a bit as well. Since we don’t have to worry about chasing new episodes as they air anymore, hopefully things will go a little smoother on that front.

I thought I would have more to say here, but the truth is, a lot of details, I need to keep close to my chest for the time being. What I will say, though, is that as I said before, my love of Mega Man has been reinvigorated, and now I feel for it now the way I haven’t in a long time. Like, how I felt 20 years ago.

Some may look at the current slate of upcoming Mega Man games, and be like, “How?”

It’s simple, really. While I’m never going to stop supporting the push for Capcom to carry the brand forward and tie up loose ends with a third Mega Man ZX, Mega Man Star Force 4, Mega Man X9, and of course, Mega Man Legends 3… this brand has been around for over 35 years, and there’s a lot already here to love.

Though I keep eyes on the future, I’ve also been looking more and more at what we have and what was, and celebrating that, too. I love the history of this brand, and as you can see in some of my writings here, I want to celebrate and preserve different aspects of that as well. This includes what things were like for those of us who were around during Mega Man‘s earliest days.

So… three years. Why do I bring up three years, specifically?

Put simply: that’s the length of the deal I signed for hosting with our new/current provider three years ago, and which has come up for renewal at a significant increase. Now, the bill has just been paid — a little sooner than we expected, but it’s taken care of. And while we can more or less handle it… the expense is snug. Kind of tight, even.

I had the ads removed from the newer version of TMMN to help improve the experience here, and I haven’t pushed our Ko-Fi and Patreon stuff very heavily, bar a mention at the end of my articles here. I’ve been wanting to revise the Patreon to offer more incentive, and that’s still in the works, but this kind of snuck up on us, and so I’m asking now that if you’ve got anything to kick our way to help offset the server costs, it would be greatly appreciated. It will also help us to afford certain things going forward to help provide new site content, such as being able to review the upcoming action figures from Jada Toys action figures (especially if I can’t find a place selling them locally, and need to import).

And that’s pretty much where everything is, as of this moment.

Thanks for reading, and for your support!

LBD "Nytetrayn"

David Oxford, or “LBD ‘Nytetrayn’,” as he is sometimes also known, is a freelance writer of many varied interests who resides in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. If you’re interested in hiring him, please drop him a line at david.oxford (at) nyteworks.net.

For a full list of places to find him online, click here.